The Rough Beginning of an Everlasting Friendship
by TheSummerNightingale
Summary: All her life, Hermione has always been teased for her smarts. But when she gets accepted to Hogwarts, the greatest wizarding school in the world, she sees the chance to start fresh; to begin anew. However, Hermione soon finds out that even in a school of magic, making friends is hard. Revisit the first months of Harry's first year at Hogwarts - this time, in Hermione's perspective.


**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except for the idea for this (which is just my personal opinion on Hermione's feelings). **

**So I was rereading the first book of Harry Potter (for about the hundredth time), and I had a sudden urge to write about Harry and Ron through Hermione's perspective; you know, to explain why she was constantly "annoying" them. And since I've really been a horrible updater for the past months, I'm hoping this will get me back into writing!**

**Anyway, this is just going to stay a one-shot, because, well, there's not much to say after this part of the book, since they become friends.. but yeah, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Eleven year-old Hermione Granger stood in shock, staring in wonder at the sleek, black train that was in front of her. She could hardly believe that she was _here_, that she had been accepted to only the greatest wizarding school of all time, that she was...a witch.

Platform Nine and Three-Quarters was simply bustling with life. Students just like her scrambled into the train and waved out the window to their parents, who stood in long black wizarding robes. Owls hooted, trunks rolled across the concrete ground, people rushed happily to meet each other after a summer vacation. This was where she belonged. After years of being alone, just because she was smarter than the other students in her classes, after years of being called "bookworm" and "goody two-shoes", Hermione finally belonged.

She felt a hand gently pat her shoulder, and turned around. Her father smiled down at her. "Ready, Hermione?"

Hermione glanced at her mother, who looked prouder than she had ever been, and nodded. "Yeah, Dad, I am." With that, she hugged them tightly, told them she would miss them and that she loved them, promised to send letters, and then, before she knew it, she was clambering onto the train, lugging her trunk behind her and waving her last goodbyes.

It took her quite awhile to find a compartment with nobody in it. It wasn't that she didn't want to sit with anyone else; it was that she simply didn't want to intrude on other people's friendships. Therefore, as soon as she had managed to heave her luggage onto the shelf, Hermione sat down and watched her fellow students climb onto the train from the platform.

She had thought that maybe a first-year like herself would come into her compartment, and that perhaps they could become friends. But no one came, not when the train started moving, not ten minutes after that, and certainly not half an hour into the ride, when she sat twiddling her thumbs, staring out the window.

Hermione found herself heaving a sigh of disappointment as she watched the green fields fly past. She had hoped that it wouldn't end up like this. The way she had envisioned it, she would currently be in one of the compartments alive with her classmates, laughing and talking about the adventures Hogwarts would offer.

But it was nothing like that, she thought bitterly. She got up, with the intention of grabbing one of her textbooks - perhaps the Transfiguration one; she had read it at least ten times, and it still fascinated her - until she happened to look through her compartment door and see people walking down the path, eating strange-looking chocolates (they looked to be frogs, but she wasn't sure).

Hermione bit her lip, then walked purposefully to the door. She wasn't going to let herself rot away in the corner, without even making an effort. She pushed open her compartment, stepped out, and was nearly run over by a round-faced boy, who looked so panicked, Hermione didn't mind that he had come quite close to sending her sprawling onto the ground.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" the boy said frantically. "But you see, I've lost my toad, Trevor, and I can't find him, I'm searching everywhere, but no one has seen him. Oh, Gran will be so mad if I don't find him, have you seen him? He's a toad, his name's Trevor."

Hermione opened her mouth to tell him that he'd already said that, but decided that would not help the situation. "I haven't seen him," she said kindly, "but I can help you find him."

The boy's face lit up. "Could you really? Thank you, oh, thank you! I'm Neville, by the way."

"I'm Hermione," she said. "Here, let's both go down these last few compartments, and if he's not here, we can go back and check the other parts of the train."

"Thanks, Hermione!" Neville said in a relieved tone, and together, they set off to find Trevor.

Hermione's legs gave beneath her, and she sat down heavily onto her compartment seat. She and Neville had spent quite a lot of time looking for the little toad, which no one had seen, and yet Neville was convinced he was on the train. Hermione had searched with him until she excused herself to ask the conductor how long until they arrived.

Neville had agreed, and went off dejectedly to his own compartment. She had felt sorry for him, but still couldn't keep her excitement contained when she found out that they would be arriving at Hogwarts very soon.

When she emerged, the halls were absolutely filled with people childishly running back and forth to who-knows-where. Hermione had pushed and shoved her way until, finally, she made it back to her compartment, where she promptly changed into her uniform.

She glanced down at her black robes. They felt quite nice on her, and she thought they gave her a certain regal look she didn't possess before.

But for some strange reason, Hermione simply could not think of her robes, classes, how she would see Hogwarts in less than an hour - she couldn't even focus on the thought of being Sorted (a concept that immensely intrigued her). Instead, she could only think about the two boys she had encountered on her journey in search of Trevor the toad.

She had been a tad disappointed when she met Harry Potter. She had thought him a little rude; though, she had to give him credit, he was nice enough. She still couldn't believe that he'd never bothered to read about himself, written inside the various books that listed his achievements.

But he was perfectly kind, compared to the boy he was with - Ron Weasley. On her search for Trevor, she had bumped into Percy Weasley, who was a prefect and someone she felt was really quite polite. So naturally, when she had heard Ron's surname was also "Weasley", she had high hopes for becoming his friend.

That was until he started talking, and she realized that he was nothing like his older brother. Instead, Ron had a rather rude way of communicating, and when she had given them the tip to change into their robes, he had arrogantly waved her off. And he had an annoying mark on his nose that was very distracting.

Still, she couldn't stop pondering over their interaction. Not because of what they had said to her, but rather, how they had acted with each other.

Hermione had read up every last detail that she could possibly about Harry Potter, and so she was absolutely positive that he had grown up with Muggles. There was no possible way that he could have known Ron Weasley from his childhood, so how was it that the two looked to be the best of friends, when they would have just met a few hours before? Howwas it, that they were so close, _what was the secret_ to making friends?

No, that wasn't supposed to be what she was thinking. Hermione shook her head, as if to rid her mind of that thought. She was about to see _Hogwarts_. She was about to be _Sorted_. And all she could think about was Harry Potter and Ron Weasley?

Hermione got up determinedly, just as the train slowed to a dead stop. No, she would not let two boys she didn't even know ruin her day. With her head held high, Hermione put on a smile, opened her compartment door, and walked out of the Hogwarts Express, towards the place she would be living at for the next seven years of her life.

* * *

"Hermione!"

Hermione spun around to see Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown rush down the corridor towards her. "Hi, Parvati," she said wearily, "Hi, Lavender."

Parvati and Lavender were two of her roommates. They were nice, but Hermione thought them to be a little too girly to her liking. In fact, at that very moment, they were speaking about how their next class, Herbology, would ruin their newly-manicured nails (whatever that meant).

She had been Sorted into Gryffindor, by the brilliant Sorting Hat, after a long struggle between putting her in Ravenclaw or the house of the brave. Hermione was rather surprised that she had been chosen for _bravery_ over smarts, but she liked Gryffindor, especially the Head, Professor McGonagall.

Hogwarts was everything Hermione imagined it to be, and more. She loved every one of her classes (though she felt Professor Snape was slightly biased), from Charms to Transfiguration to History of Magic. Nothing pleased her more than to go down glorious hallways to her classes - nothing, of course, except for the library.

Hermione had never seen so many books placed in one room. Books lined every wall, on shelves that towered above her, and she felt that she would spend the rest of her life reading all the books if she could. But this was impractical, seeing as she had homework and classes to go to, so Hermione settled for going to the library every free moment she had.

Hermione slipped through the open door at the end of the corridor, walking onto the outdoor grounds that led to the Herbology greenhouses. She became separated from Parvati and Lavender - partly because of the other first-year girls that had joined in their talk about hair, but mainly because Hermione had spotted Ron Weasley's bright red hair, and she'd slipped away towards him and Harry Potter.

When the two were Sorted into Gryffindor as well, Hermione wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she was rather pleased. Being in the same house meant that they had the same classes, and being in the same class meant that she could get to know them. But it honestly didn't take her long (in fact, it took no more than two classes) to figure out that she didn't really want to get to know _them_, so much as she did their secret.

Hermione's worst fear was loneliness. She feared it even more than failing a test. She feared it like the adults of the wizarding world feared You-Know-Who. She feared it more than anything in the world, and perhaps that was why she wanted to find out their secret to making friends.

So she had made a plan, to do the one thing in the world she was certain she excelled in (other than school) - she would observe Harry Potter and Ron Weasley until she found out their secret.

Which was rather stalkerish, but Hermione didn't find herself caring at the moment.

Instead, she hiked on down to the greenhouses, trailing behind the two boys. And it didn't occur to her, not even once, that maybe it wasn't so much as their "secret" that she was searching for, as it was their friendship.

* * *

Hermione sat in front of the Gryffindor common room's fireplace, fingering her pink bathrobe. The room was in near darkness, save for the light from the few embers that were still lit up in the grate.

She sighed and put down the book she had carelessly been skimming for the past half hour. Perhaps she should just go to bed, she thought to herself. Perhaps they weren't coming, after all.

Still, Hermione stayed seated on the chair, her ears perked up and listening for any sounds coming from the boy's dormitories.

Just this afternoon, after the dreaded Flying lesson (Hermione didn't even want to think about how horribly she'd done), she had overheard Draco Malfoy, an annoying Slytherin, challenge Harry to a wizard's duel at midnight. She had thought Harry would have _some_ sense to say no, but instead, he had accepted.

She was fairly certain that anyone who had observed Draco Malfoy for even the slightest amount of time could figure out that nothing good came out of talking with him. He was simply an annoying brat who seemed to have a deep loathing of Harry. But this was not as apparent to Harry and Ron, as it was to her, so she had approached them, telling them that it wasn't worth it to go.

They had obviously pushed her away, and quite rudely so, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying to keep them from going. Which was why she had snuck down from her dormitory to sit in the common room and wait for them to try to sneak out.

She didn't know why she was doing it for them. After all, she disliked Harry and Ron, for their childish actions and rude personalities. Whenever she saw them, particularly Ron, she wanted to scream in annoyance, and she usually did yell at them.

But maybe the reason she was waiting for them because she didn't want them to lose house points that she'd earned. Maybe it was because wizard's duels can be rather dangerous, and she didn't trust Harry to be able to protect himself from Malfoy's tricks. But maybe the reason why she was staying up wasn't because of the voice in her head telling her that this was all a trap on Malfoy's part, but because she wanted to talk to them.

They never let her talk to them, of course. She was sure they thought her to be bossy, but this was what everyone always thought of her, so she was used to it. They were no different from Parvati or Lavender, and yet, there was something about them that set them apart, something that made her want to be a part of their friendship.

Hermione suddenly heard a mutter, more whispers following it. A door closed, and she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She quietly straightened her position on her chair and waited, releasing a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

And for some strange reason, she felt...happy, when she flicked on the lamp and announced her presence to their startled eyes.

* * *

She couldn't do anything but run. She couldn't speak, she couldn't say sorry when she sent someone's books flying onto the ground, she couldn't think, and she couldn't breathe. She held her breath for the entire way to wherever her legs were taking her, because she knew that if she didn't, she would start crying.

For once, Hermione cursed the school for being so big. It took her a full ten minutes to finally reach a girls' lavatory, and when she did, she immediately crammed herself into a stall, locked the door, and burst into silent tears.

She didn't know why Ron Weasley's words had affected her so much. After all, she had been called much worse than "a nightmare", when she was in primary school. So she didn't see why she had broken down when she heard him say that, and she _really_ didn't know why she was crying.

Hermione's plan had been to make a quick stop to the bathroom, just enough to calm herself down, so she could go to her next class, but it seemed like every time she gained her composure, she would think about Harry and Ron and promptly start crying again.

In fact, it took her a full forty-five minutes to be able to stop crying for over two minutes. She briefly considered rushing to Transfiguration, even though she would only arrive for the end of the lesson, but decided that if she were to tear up in the middle of class, she would never live it down. No, it was better to risk her dignity for one day, rather than the rest of the year. After all, was it natural for eleven-year olds to cry so much?

She unlocked her stall, and walked towards the wall near the sinks. Sinking down to the floor, she looked at her reflection in the mirror, and began to think.

She stayed there in that same position for another hour (which meant that she missed History of Magic as well), thinking, thinking about what she'd heard and why she had been so impacted. And since she was Hermione Granger, Hermione Granger, the "smartest girl in the class", the one who "knows all the answers", the "goody two-shoes", the "_nightmare_"; since she was Hermione Granger, she figured it out.

It wasn't the "nightmare" part. It was the part where Ron had said that nobody liked her. It was that line that had cut her down, because it was that line that listed that very fear that tied in with loneliness.

When Hermione got her letter from Hogwarts, she had been quite confused at first, even with Professor McGonagall there to convince and explain to her unwilling parents that it hadn't been a nasty joke they had tried to play on their daughter. She had been so bewildered because she simply couldn't wrap her head around the fact that she was a witch, and the best wizarding school in the world _wanted her_.

And once she did, Hermione had looked forward to coming, because this was a new life. Hogwarts would be filled with people who hadn't grown up calling her "bookworm", people that were like her, and maybe those things would combine, and she could fit in.

But Ronald Weasley ruined that dream for her. Even though it was two months into the school year, she still had hope that things would be different from primary school, until he ruined it all with his comment.

Now Hermione sat, her hands wrapped around her legs, and rocked back and forth. And before she knew it, she was in tears again. Except this time she would have really preferred it to have stayed locked up inside her, because right then and there, the door to the lavatory opened, revealing a laughing Parvati and a grinning Lavender.

They instantly stopped giggling when they saw Hermione's tears, and hesitantly stepped towards her. "Hermione!" Parvati said in a concerned tone. "What's wrong?"

Hermione found it very kind of her to ask, and truly believed that she was going to stop crying and smile and wave them away, but what came out of her mouth was quite the opposite.

"Leave me alone!" she found herself yelling. "I don't want to talk about it, just let me be alone!"

Parvati looked shocked, and perhaps even more concerned, and was opening her mouth to say something else, when Lavender, who was looking at Hermione with an odd expression, said, "She obviously wants to be alone, Parvati. Let's just go to the Halloween feast already."

They slowly backed away from her, and, with one glance behind their shoulders, stepped out into the hallway, which was bursting with sounds of happy chatter and moving students. Parvati left the door open, so Hermione was forced to listen to the sounds of footsteps die out and disappear.

Hermione briefly considered following after them - after all, it was the first holiday feast of the year, and did she really want to miss it, just because she'd be seeing Harry and Ron there?

But then she realized that she _would_ rather miss the feast than have to endure the indignity of seeing the two idiots.

She stayed in the bathroom for such a long time, and had just decided that she would go to the feast after all, when a foul, revolting stench reached her nostrils. She heard a deep grunt, and a large shadow was cast against the doorway.

Hermione didn't dare let out a whimper, though her heart was pounding in her ears. She quietly got up, and slowly took two steps towards the door. And nearly screamed.

Because walking into the bathroom was a 12-foot troll who could barely fit under the door frame. Its eyes wandered about the ceiling - Hermione was quite certain that the only reason it hadn't seen her yet was because it hadn't thought about looking down.

She was just about to slip around the troll's blundering legs and get as far away from it as she _possibly_ could, when the bathroom door suddenly closed with a large bang, and she heard a key turn in the lock.

The noise disturbed the troll, and he shook his head as if to block out sound. And in that process, he saw Hermione. And a strange smile came across its face.

Hermione glanced over at the locked door. She looked up at the troll's looming figure. And she couldn't hold it in anymore - she let out the most desperate, terrified scream that she had _ever_ heard in her life.

* * *

Hermione stood in the shadows near the back of the Fat Lady's portrait. Behind her, the Halloween feast was still going on (even a mountain troll couldn't stop the festivities), and all of her fellow Gryffindors were laughing, eating, and talking. But even though she had been invited by Parvati to join in the conversation, Hermione stayed put, waiting once more for the Harry and Ron to appear.

The two had come into the bathroom to save her. She thought that they had been extremely brave, taking on the troll themselves. Harry had tried to usher her out of the room, with Ron distracting the troll, and - she still couldn't believe it - he'd actually used _Wingardium Leviosa_ to lift a club!

Together, Ron and Harry managed to take down the troll; unfortunately, when the troll fell, it had made quite a sound, and attracted the teachers nearby.

When the staff members had come running into the lavatory and questioned what was going on, for the first time in her life, Hermione had lied to a teacher. This obviously shocked Harry and Ron (she saw it in their faces), and she was actually surprised, herself, but for some reason, Hermione really felt like she had done the right thing.

But she'd still been the cause of the trouble, she had still endangered all of their lives. So she wanted to apologize to them, or at least say thank you for their saving her.

Hermione smiled a little. It was funny, how these things worked. Just an hour ago, she had been determined to avoid the two boys for the rest of her life, and now, she was _waiting_ for them to come, so that she could talk to them. It was something like the happy ending of a story.

But it didn't feel like an ending - no, it felt like it was just the beginning. After all, Hermione thought to herself, as the portrait door opened and revealed Harry and Ron, who knew? Maybe one day, the three of them could become really good friends.

* * *

**I hope that was fun or nice or heart-warming to read! I did have a lot of fun writing it, even though I think I fall flat at parts (the writing felt...denser… does that make sense? Probably not). Hermione's background story has always been so interesting to me, and I know that I focused on that a lot at some parts..**

**Anyway, please review! I love reading comments (whether positive or negative), because it gives me certain things to think about when writing my fanfictions! Thank you :)**


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